When In Doubt
by This is the Matrix
Summary: Disclaimer; I do not own Avatar in any way... Mostly Maiko, but with a dash of Zutara... When in doubt, tell Sokka your problem. He'll probably screw things up. Many years after the finale. Rated M for later chapters.


A/N: I don't know if I'll actually continue this story, but I thought it sounded good so if it gets some decent feedback I''ll definitely continue

**Awkward**

Zuko looked around the courtyard from his seat on a bench of white stone and smiled to himself. It was teeming with life in the forms of mice, flowers and shrubbery but the most noticeable aspect happened to be the children that were making a terrible mess of the perfectly groomed plants. A small feel of exasperation poked at Zuko's mind, but for the most part he was just happy that all the children were alive and healthy.

There six of them in all, and each one was unique. The two oldest were the thirteen-year old twins, a boy and a girl who went by the names of Kodai and Suri. They were both very tall and had terribly odd senses of humor and were constantly making jokes. The scourge of the group of children.

Kodai and Suri made a great game of tormenting the other children, though they were never cruel. Things like "misplacing" the seven-year old Gyuu's left shoe or messing up the perfectly braided hair of ten-year old Kya, who always got extremely upset. Kya did not like bending to hurt other's, so she kept her anger to herself and took it out on fountain that was a primary vocal point in the courtyard. The poor fountain, made of black marble and yet still it bore the scars of Kya's anger.

The last two children were very young. One was an adopted Earth-bending baby who had been an orphan of the War. Her name was Sen, and she was just 18 monthes old with a terrifying hobby of shooting pebbles at people's toes. The smallest though had been born not even two weeks before, and was sleeping in Fire Lady Mai's arms. The picture made Zuko wish someone of artistic competence (not Sokka) could paint it for him.

But even as he was thinking this a now adult Katara walked over from re-braiding Kya's hair and took _her _baby from Mai's arms. "Thanks for holding him." she said animatedly to Mai as she turned to walk over to the now adult Avatar and placed _his_ son in his arms. Zuko watched in silent envy at the joy the couple had with their children.

Kya, Gyuu and the new baby known as Hakku were the children of Katara and Aang. Kya was a waterbender and Gyuu was an airbender and little Hakku also showed signs of being an airbender. Young Sen was a product of Toph's usually veiled kindness, while Kodai and Suri where the unruly offspring of Sokka and Suki.

Everyone was here by invitation of Zuko, and the seats in which everybody sat were arranged in a half-oval made up of four white stone benches, and in a clockwise order the seating was arranged with Sokka and Suki sharing a bench, Katara and Aang sharing a bench, Toph with a bench to herself and the Fire Lord and Mai on the last bench. All of his friends had come with their families that inspired such envy in Zuko that he could hardly keep from becoming depressed.

His depression was rooted in his wife's inability to conceive. Katara was the one who told the couple, just after she'd had Gyuu. Her words were a painfully headache to Zuko. 'Mai can't conceive.' 'An internal injury from when she was very young has made her unable to bare children.' Zuko glared ahead, getting to entangle in his own thoughts to notice the other adults starring at him.

"Heyya, Zuko?" said Sokka in an overly casual manner as he walked over from his wife. "Is there something wrong?" But everyone knew that Sokka's attempt would prove fruitless because when the Fire Lord started brood as he did when he was younger, nothing could break him out of it. Well, nothing except Mai of course. But that wasn't much help considering she usually just let him brood as she found it immature and thought the best punishment would be to ignore him.

The Fire Lord turned away from Sokka. He had taken his topknot out so his slightly shaggy hair hung over his eyes, and everyone took this as the signal that the Fire Lord was in no mood to talk. Sokka took this personally and went to whine to Katara, because Suki dealt with it much more often then Katara did, and he was feeling generous today.

Though Sokka was a solid 29 years of age, he still held onto his ridiculous humor and his silly whining. He really wouldn't be Sokka without them. He strode up to Katara and whispered haughtily in her left ear, "What's Zuko's deal? He always get's so mad when he invites us to come see him."

Aang, who was on Katara's right, poked his head around so he could see Sokka. The now 26-year old Avatar held a great wisdom in his eyes but still held the sparkle of a child that was his trademark as the Avatar. He looked from Sokka to Katara and said, "You might as well tell him, it's not as though it will hurt anything." His voice was still quite high for being an adult, but it was the voice of a skilled singer though Aang had never taken an interest. Nonetheless it was a voice that made anyone calm and obliging, so naturally Katara told Sokka about Zuko's unfortunate predicament.

Katara turned serious blue eyes on Sokka and said quietly, "When Mai was little she, Ty Lee and Azula were playing, and as expected Azula got too violent and encouraged Ty Lee to do the same. Right were her reproductive organs should be Azula burned and Ty Lee broke. What was left of those organs have been absorbed by her body and don't exist anymore."

Sokka's eyes had gone vague with concentration. He was too busy thinking to bother seeing. He half walked, half tripped back to Suki were he sat concentrating for the duration of the time the children played in courtyard.

When Zuko finally broke out of his brooding he stood up, embarrassed and asked them all to join him in the comfort dining room for dinner. Everyone and their families followed. Katara turned from Aang using airbending to actually get their children to follow the Fire Lord, and saw Sokka, still thinking hard. And_ things_ always happen when Sokka begins to think.


End file.
